Sources informed Forbes that SoftBank Group will likely hold off any investments into cryptocurrency and blockchain startups until the end of H1 2023.
The pause, which started last year, comes as the Japanese venture firm evaluates its "long-term" opportunities. Since Q3 last year, the firm has slowed its VC dealmaking by over 90% after reporting $5.9B at the end of Q4.
- Macquarie Capital analyzed SoftBank Vision Fund's portfolio in mid-February and estimates that 94% of the fund's portfolio companies had sufficient capital to fund operations until next year.
- The firm's last notable crypto investment was when it co-led a $66M funding round into blockchain infrastructure startup InfStones in June 2022.
- SoftBank was absent from portfolio company NFT studio Candy Digital's $38.4M Series A extension round in January 2023.
- SoftBank's Vision Fund 2, which has a total fund size of $56B, deployed $450M in 14 crypto startups between 2021 and early 2022.
